S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
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                                    67
 
                        2019-2020 Regular Sessions
 
                           I N  A S S E M B L Y
 
                                (PREFILED)
 
                              January 9, 2019
                                ___________
 
 Introduced by M. of A. CAHILL -- read once and referred to the Committee
   on Ways and Means
 
 AN  ACT  to  amend the tax law, in relation to the form of tax stamps on
   cigarettes
 
   THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND  ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
 
   Section  1. Subdivision 1 of section 472 of the tax law, as amended by
 chapter 629 of the laws of 1996 and as further amended by section 104 of
 part A of chapter 62 of the laws of 2011, is amended to read as follows:
   1. The commissioner shall [prescribe,] prepare and furnish  stamps  of
 such denominations and quantities as may be necessary for the payment of
 the tax on cigarettes imposed by this article, and may from time to time
 and  as  often as he deems advisable provide for the issuance and exclu-
 sive use of stamps of a new design and forbid the use of stamps  of  any
 other  design, in the manner and with the effect provided in section two
 hundred seventy-four of this chapter.  SUCH  STAMPS  SHALL  MEASURE  TWO
 INCHES  BY  TWO  INCHES  AND  BE AFFIXED TO THE PACKAGE OVERWRAP ON BOTH
 SIDES OF A PACKAGE OF TWENTY CIGARETTES. EACH STAMP SHALL BEAR  A  COLOR
 GRAPHIC  DEPICTING AN ADVERSE EFFECT OF CIGARETTE USE AND INCLUDE A TOLL
 FREE TELEPHONE NUMBER WHICH CALLERS MAY ACCESS FOR INFORMATION ON  SMOK-
 ING  CESSATION.  The  commissioner shall make provisions for the sale of
 such stamps at such places and at such times as he  may  deem  necessary
 and  may  license  agents for such purpose. The commissioner may license
 dealers in cigarettes, who maintain separate warehousing facilities  for
 the  purpose  of  receiving  and  distributing cigarettes and conducting
 their business, who have received commitments from at  least  two  ciga-
 rette  manufacturers  whose  aggregate  market  share  is at least forty
 percent of the New York state cigarette market, and importers, exporters
 and manufacturers of cigarettes, and other persons within or without the
 state as agents to buy or affix stamps to be  used  in  paying  the  tax
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
              

                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD01961-01-9

 A. 67                               2
 
 herein  imposed,  but  an  agent  shall  at  all times have the right to
 appoint the person in his employ who is to affix the stamps to any ciga-
 rettes under the agent's control. The fee for  filing  such  application
 for  an  agent's  license  shall  be  one thousand five hundred dollars,
 unless such fee has been paid during the  preceding  twelve  months,  in
 which case, the fee for a new license shall be one thousand dollars. All
 of  the provisions of section four hundred eighty OF THIS ARTICLE relat-
 ing to wholesale dealers' licenses, including the procedure for  suspen-
 sion,  revocation, refusal to license and for hearings, except for para-
 graphs (c) and  (g)  of  subdivision  one  of  such  section,  shall  be
 applicable  to  agents' licenses applied for or granted pursuant to this
 section, as if such provisions had been set forth in full in this subdi-
 vision and had expressly referred to the applicant for,  or  the  holder
 of, an agent's license. Whenever the commissioner shall sell and deliver
 to  any  such  agent  any  such  stamps, such agent shall be entitled to
 receive as compensation for his services and expenses as such  agent  in
 selling  or  affixing such stamps, and to retain out of the moneys to be
 paid by him for such stamps, a commission on the par value thereof.  The
 commissioner  is  hereby  authorized  to prescribe a schedule of commis-
 sions, not exceeding five per centum, allowable to such agent for buying
 and affixing such stamps. Such schedule shall be uniform with respect to
 the different types of stamps used, and may be on a graduated scale with
 respect to the number of stamps purchased. The commissioner may, in  his
 discretion,  permit  an  agent to pay for such stamps within thirty days
 after the date of purchase and may require any such agent to  file  with
 the  department  [of  taxation  and  finance]  a bond issued by a surety
 company approved by the  superintendent  of  financial  services  as  to
 solvency  and  responsibility and authorized to transact business in the
 state or other security acceptable to the commissioner, in  such  amount
 as  the commissioner may fix, to secure the payment of any sums due from
 such agent pursuant to this article.  If  securities  are  deposited  as
 security  under  this  subdivision, such securities shall be kept in the
 custody of the commissioner and may be sold by the  commissioner  if  it
 becomes  necessary  so  to do in order to recover any sums due from such
 agent pursuant to this article, but no such  sale  shall  be  had  until
 after  such agent shall have had opportunity to litigate the validity of
 any tax if it elects so to do. Upon any such sale, the surplus, if  any,
 above the sums due under this article shall be returned to such agent.
   § 2. This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after
 it shall have become a law.